Method and network element for paying by a mobile terminal through a communication network

ABSTRACT

The present invention proposes a payment method for paying by a mobile terminal ( 1 ) through a communication network, the method comprising the steps of:—providing (S 2 ) information on a transaction effected with a third party ( 2 ) using the mobile terminal ( 1 ),—judging (S 4,  S 6 ), whether said information fulfills a predetermined criterion of a plurality of predetermined criteria, and—selecting (S 5,  S 7,  S 8 ), dependent on the result of said judging step, a corresponding one out of a plurality of payment modes ( 8, 9, 10;  Mode  1,  Mode  2,  Mode  3 ) for said transaction.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a payment method for paying by a mobileterminal through a communication network, and it relates also to acorrespondingly adapted network element.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As a result of recent developments, the use of communication terminalssuch as wireless terminals known as mobile phones and/or mobile stationsMS has widely spread. Together with the spreading of mobile stationusage, development of so-called value added services offered to theusers of the mobile stations, i.e. the subscribers to a communicationnetwork, finds an increasing interest.

For example, there is offered a service, by means of which a subscriberto a communication network (as a customer) can be billed for atransaction effected with a third party (vendor) using the subscriber'sterminal device. Stated in other words, the necessity of having creditcard and/or cash money or another means for payment could be replaced bypossessing a mobile station and having subscribed to a communicationnetwork run by the network operator.

Thus, in greater detail, a third party as a vendor of some goods or as aservice provider providing some service such as for example taxidriving, has a vending apparatus (e.g. adapted to dispense the goods)installed at the location of the goods or at the service provisioning(e.g. in the taxi).

Then, in case the mobile station user as a customer makes a contractwith the vendor/service provider, he has to decide how to pay for thegoods/service, e.g. by cash payment, credit card payment or the like, orpayment via his mobile station.

For payment via his mobile station, the user (customer) has to make acall to the vending apparatus via the communication network. Thenetwork, more particularly, a network element such as an exchange withinthe network (e.g. a mobile services switching center MSC according toGSM standard (GSM=Global standard of mobile communication)) routes thecall to the called destination. Such a routing may take different routeswithin the network to establish a communication path between the mobilestation and the vending apparatus. For example, document U.S. Pat. No.6,141,410 discloses possibilities for routing a call in a communicationnetwork based on call attributes.

In case a user decides to pay via his mobile station, document EP-B1-0669 031 discloses an authentication procedure for authenticating asubscriber prior to payment. Such authentication is nearly alwaysrequired in order to minimize a risk of fraudulent behavior of thecustomer/user of the mobile station.

Nevertheless, in case the payment is effected via the mobile station ofthe subscriber, the charge for the bought goods/offered services isbilled to the subscribers telephone bill by the network operator and theoperator has the risk that the telephone bill or at least part of itremains unpaid. As prices for goods that can be bought using the mobilestation may reach significant heights, the risk of the operatorincreases accordingly.

In order to further minimize this risk, a network operator keeps arecord of fraudulent private persons, e.g. those having previously shownfraudulent behavior, or has to define kind of a fraudulent behaviorprofile. This, however, imposes an additional burden on the networkoperator and in case of a payment via a mobile station also implies anadditional step after authentication in order to make sure that theauthenticated subscriber is not known as (potentially) fraudulent, tothereby filter out risky transactions that might remain unpaid.

Also, the risk could be minimized by preventing some transactions suchas buying goods or using offered services to be paid using the mobilestation. This, however, would impose some inconvenience to thesubscriber.

Further, for example the operator would require to have informationabout the users' bank connections. This however bears a risk that theanonymity cannot be guaranteed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Hence, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improvedmethod and network element for paying by a mobile terminal through acommunication network, which is free from above mentioned drawbacks. Thegoods to be bought can be digital content such as music, multimedia(including text, images, audio and video, which can be deliveredinstantly to the mobile terminal using buyer and the digital content canbe protected with digital rights management, DRM arrangement.

According to the present invention, this object is for example achievedby a payment method for paying by a mobile terminal through acommunication network, the method comprising the steps of: providinginformation-on a transaction effected with a third party using themobile terminal, judging, whether said information fulfills apredetermined criterion of a plurality of predetermined criteria, andselecting, dependent on the result of said judging step, a correspondingone out of a plurality of payment modes for said transaction.

According to favorable further developments of the present invention,

-   -   said information on said transaction is cost information        representing the costs accrued for said transaction;    -   said information on said transaction is indicative of a type of        transaction;    -   according to the selected payment mode, said information on said        transaction is transferred to a corresponding destination;    -   if said selected payment mode is selected for transactions        involving payments that are less than a specific amount, the        payment amount being added to the communication network        operator's bill for the user of the mobile terminal, and the        information on said transaction is transferred to the billing        server;    -   for a specific selected payment mode, said information on said        transaction is accumulated for plural individual transactions        before being transferred to said corresponding destination;    -   if said selected payment mode is selected for transactions        involving payments that are equal or greater than a specific        amount, said information on said transaction is individually        transferred to said corresponding destination;    -   said predetermined criterion is user specific, and said method        further comprises a step of providing information about said        predetermined criterion for a user; and    -   a transaction comprises the steps of choosing, by the mobile        terminal, a vending machine, disclosing, by the vending machine,        a telephone number which the customer, by means of the mobile        terminal, may dial for buying a good/service offered by said        vending machine, and dialing said disclosed telephone number.

Additionally the digital content which is bought and instantly deliveredto the mobile buyer and is protected with digital rights arrangement thebought product, which is the encrypted or otherwise protected digitalcontent can be used in the terminal after a key or set of keys isreceived from the network to the mobile terminal so that the digitalcontent can be decrypted or interpreted with assistance of the key (orset of keys). Further more the key to interpret or encrypt digitalcontent can be stored in one of following network elements: vendingmachine or certificate agency server. After the digital content isbought by the mobile terminal user the key of the digital rightsprotecting the digital content can be stored in the mobile terminal oralternatively in the user information register in the network.

Still further, according to the present invention, the above object isfor example solved by a network element adapted to carry out the methodas defined above.

Accordingly, with the present invention the payment for a transactionbetween the user of the mobile station and e.g. a vending apparatus of avendor as a third party is transparent for the user who does not have totake care of the payment mode selection. Also, the risk of the networkoperator that a bill will not be paid is reduced, as the payment serverselects the mode of payment according to the information on thetransaction performed (e.g. based on the sum to be charged/billed, or onthe type of transaction such as “buy” or “service”, or on a combinationof the both).

Stated-in other words, it is enabled that some upper or lower limits (bymeans of which different criteria are defined) are used in such a waythat those transaction information such as e.g. sum of costs that arenot major costs can be charged later on by the communication networkoperator for instance, while those costs that represent a certain valuethat may cause a lost of revenue if the bill remains unpaid can safelybe paid using another payment mode such as a credit card or bankpayment. Note that the payment modes are selectable also dependent onthe type of transaction and/or type and costs of transaction, or on thebasis of other transaction information such as subscriber identificationor subscriber group or subscriber profile specifically.

Thus, in general, the network element according to the present inventionreferred to as payment server enables plural payment modes to a user,the alternative payment mode to be used being selected according to theinformation on the transaction (e.g. type of transaction and/or price oftransaction) performed by the user with a third party (vendor/serviceprovider). Several margins can be specified which are used to define acertain payment mode. The margins may be subscriber specific orsubscriber group/profile specific or transaction information specific.

For example, all payments below a certain risk level (e.g. price) thatthe operator has defined in accordance with the payment server owner(third party) are to be charged by the operator attached to the periodicbill of the subscriber for subscribing to and usage of the communicationnetwork. Some money margins that are not to be included in thesubscriber bill issued by the network operator may be specified in thepayment server, so that corresponding sums are to be transferred furtherto the bank institute of the subscriber (or to his credit card agency),either in “real time”, i.e. immediately and/or as soon as possible aftercompletion of the transaction, or as a bulk transfer, i.e. informationon an individual transaction is accumulated for plural of suchindividual transactions before being transferred to the correspondingdestination such as the bank of the subscriber (e.g. monthly or weeklyor any other interval).

Also, advantageously according to present invention the operator wouldno longer require to have information about the users' bank connections.This removes a risk that the anonymity cannot be guaranteed while takinga burden away from the operator of the communication network to maintaina record of the users' bank connections.

Also advantageously the accumulated plural transactions having reachedthe limit of the user's specific predetermined criterion or definedfraud limit, the terminal is requested to sign payment transaction,which user given signature is validated in a server of a certificateauthority (located in a bank or a credit card agency).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features, objects and advantages of the present invention willbecome more fully apparent with reference to the accompanying drawings,in which:

FIG. 1A shows a rough overview of network elements and terminalsinvolved in implementing the present invention;

FIG. 1B) shows a rough overview of network elements and terminalsinvolved in implementing the present invention, which include acertificate agency;

FIG. 2 a shows a signaling diagram of the signaling between some of theterminals and network elements shown in FIG. 1A, and

FIG. 2 b shows another signaling diagram of the signaling between someof the terminals and network elements shown in FIG. 1A, and

FIG. 3 shows an example of mapping transaction type information topayment modes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described in greater detail withreference to the drawings.

Generally, in connection with the present invention, a mobile station(MS) acts as an interface for the user, buyer or consumer for accessinga communication network having a network element according to thepresent invention and adapted to implement the method according to thepresent invention. Such a mobile station (MS) may be a WAP-capablecellular telephone, a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) capable cellulartelephone, or a cellular telephone with a processor-based systemconnected to it. Such a processor-based system may be, but is notlimited to, a laptop computer, palm computer, or other portablecomputing devices including the WAP-capable telephone alone. The mobilestation (MS) communicates through the telecom infrastructure provided bythe communication network to a banking service provider server through agateway. The telecom infrastructure may be, but is not limited to acellular telephone control protocol, such as GSM (Global System forMobile Communications) telephony system or any other suitable accessprotocol. The interface between the mobile station and a vending machineis adapted to the communication infrastructure which may be, but is notlimited to, a direct physical connection, low power short range radiofrequency (LPRF) connection such as Bluetooth™, infrared connection, anwireless IP (Internet Protocol) connection, hyper LAN or any othersuitable means of communication. In turn the vending machine maycommunicate with the gateway and thus the local network operator servicethrough, but not limited to, an internet protocol packet-switchednetwork, a dial-up line over the public switched telephone network, orany other suitable means of communications. Therefore, the embodimentsof the present invention are not limited to communications using theInternet. Further, the local network operator service may communicate tothe buyer's home network operator service directly through the PSTN orvia the Internet or any known data network. In addition, the homenetwork operator service, the local network operator service and agateway are all considered to be part of the mobile telephoneinfrastructure for billing and authentication, which serves tofacilitate the purchase of goods and services.

It should be noted that the embodiments of the present invention willoperate when the user is in the home network operator service area andthus the home network operator service and the local network operatorservice may be one and the same entity.

When the user or consumer is not in his home network operator servicearea, the user may still make purchases from seller (vending machine) ifa roaming agreement exists between the local network operator serviceand the home network operator service. Further, the seller may be anyoneselling a good or service from a street flower vendor to a department orclothing store. The seller may also be a seller of software or otherdigital products and may have a store front or may have a web site onthe Internet. The goods to be bought can be digital content such asmusic, multimedia (including text, images, audio and video, which can beprotected with digital rights management, DRM arrangement. If the useror buyer is outside of his home network operator service area, the localnetwork operator service will submit an accounting record of thetransaction between buyer and seller to the user's home network operatorservice for billing on the user's telephone bill as in selectioncriteria selected by the buyer.

Using the present invention it is possible for a buyer to utilize hismobile station similarly to a credit card to pay for goods and serviceswherever the user's home network operator service has established aroaming agreement with the local network operator service. As with themajor credit cards, this could someday be worldwide if a universalcellular phone standard is established. Since digital signatures cannotbe forged by any party that do not have access to the signing key, andsince the signing key is never released outside the mobile station, itwould be impossible for a third party eavesdropper, hacker, criminal, orthe seller to either undetectably modify payment messages generated by alegitimate payer, or generate bogus payment messages purportedly comingfrom a legitimate payer. In addition, the buyer or user may utilizemobile station wherever his home network operator service hasestablished a roaming agreement and his mobile station can interface tothe local network operator service.

Embodiments of the present invention use the GSM (Global System forMobile Communications) telephony system that employs algorithms in themobile station (MS), such as, but not limited to, cellular phones andWAP-capable cellular phones, and the mobile telephone infrastructure forbilling and authentication which controls authentication of the user andmobile station to prevent unauthorized access to the network and toprovide encryption of the transmissions between users.

Now, with reference to the drawings, FIG. 1A shows a rough overview ofnetwork elements and terminals involved in implementing the presentinvention. A subscriber to the network and user of his terminal isrepresented by his mobile station MS 1. The mobile station MS 1 isadapted to communicate via and/or with the communication network 3, 4,5, 6 as for example a mobile communication network according to GSM. Thecommunication network is represented by a base station subsystem BSS3,connected to a mobile services switching center MSC 4, which in turn isconnected to a home location register/visitor location register HLR/VLR5. A VLR contains a copy of the subscriber data contained in the HLR.The (mobile) communication network, i.e. the MSC is connected via agateway element GW 6 to a fixed network such as the Internet (not shownas such). Also, the MSC is connected to a billing server 10 of thecommunication network. The billing server collects subscriber datarelated to the subscription to and usage of the network by thesubscriber and is adapted to issue regular bills for a respectivesubscriber so that the network operator may charge the subscriber forsubscribing to the network or communicating via the network. As thecommunication network and its functionality as such is known, a furtherdetailed description is omitted here.

The subscriber may have the possibility to be a customer to a thirdparty. The third party is also known as selling entity. The third partyis represented by a vending machine 2. A vending machine 2 may forexample be a food dispensing machine, a ticket buying machine or thelike. In such cases, the subscriber may, by means of his mobile stationMS 1, initiate a transaction to buy a corresponding good from the ownerof the vending machine 2. Nevertheless, the vending machine 2 may be ataxi with adapted equipment, so that the subscriber may initiate atransaction to obtain a corresponding transportation service from theowner of the vending machine, i.e. the taxi driver.

A transaction is initiated by the mobile station MS 1 initiating a callvia the mobile communication network 3, 4 (BSS, MSC) to the vendingmachine. To this end, the vending machine 2 is identified by a telephonenumber, for example. In case the vending machine 2 offers plural goodsfor sale, a corresponding plurality of telephone numbers are availablefor the vending machine, each identifying a respective good and thus theprice to be charged for the transaction of buying the good. The vendingmachine 2 responds to the call via the network, particularly the MSCthereof, so that the MSC gets information on the ongoing transaction(transaction information).

Transaction information may comprise the type of transaction such as“buy” or “service”, and/or the “price” of transaction thesubscriber/customer is to be charged/billed.

Additionally the transaction may also include information of the sellerif the payment server 7 is maintained or owned by other than the vendingmachine owner. Then more than one firm owning vending machines may useone payment server.

Note that the mobile station 1 may be equipped with (both not shown) auniform resource agent of type 2 (URA 2) and/or with a WAP identitymodule (WIM) (which is similar to a subscriber identity module) (WAP=Wireless Application Protocol). The URA 2 may contain credit card orbankcard information to be used if a payment for the transaction is tobe realized via a credit card agency or a bank.

The transaction information at the MSC is forwarded via the gatewayelement GW (and e.g. further via the Internet) to a payment server 7.Typically, the third party who also owns the vending machine 2 owns thepayment server 7, but the third party may also rent such a paymentserver 7.

The payment server 2 as a network element judges whether saidtransaction information fulfill a predetermined criterion of a pluralityof predetermined criteria, and selects, dependent on the result of saidjudging step, a corresponding one out of a plurality of payment modesfor said transaction. Shown in FIG. 1A are three different examples forpayment modes, each mode being represented by a correspondingdestination to which information on said transaction is transferred to.

Namely, in one payment mode (mode 1), the transaction information istransferred to the (mobile) network operators billing server 10 forcharging the subscriber together with his subsequent telephone bill. Inanother payment mode (mode 2) the transaction information is transferredto bank server 9 of the subscriber's bank for charging the subscriber'sbank account. For example, such a charging could be effected after apredetermined time (in mode 2a) in regular intervals (daily, weekly,monthly or the like) together with accumulated charges for otherindividual transactions performed during that time. Thus the payments ofeach transaction is made off-line when compared to payments made in realtime and immediately during or right after each individual purchasetransaction has occurred. Alternatively, the charges accruing could beaccumulated and charged to the subscriber's bank account if a certainpredetermined amount has been reached (in mode 2 b) by the sum of theprices to be charged for the number of performed transactions. Stillfurther, in another mode (mode 3) the subscriber's bank account could becharged immediately for a performed transaction (e.g. if the priceexceeds a certain limit). Alternatively, in a payment mode (e.g. mode 3a), it is not the subscriber's bank account but his credit card that ischarged with the price for the performed transaction. To this end, acredit card agency server 8 is also connected to the payment server 7 inthe example illustrated in FIG. 1A.

The connections between network elements transporting confidential datasuch as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, transaction data etc.should preferably be secure connections. For example, the connectionfrom the MSC 4 via the gateway GW 6 to the payment server 7 could be aSSL secured connection (Secure Socket Layer), while the connections fromthe payment server 7 to the credit card agency server 8, bank server 9,billing server 10 could be based on VPN (Virtual Private Network) orencrypted/ciphered TCP/IP connections (Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol). The gateway GW 6 could be a WAP gateway butalso another gateway.

Referring back to the VLR 5 connected to the MSC 4, the VLR containsinformation on the subscriber necessary to communicate via the network,and particularly contains an information whether the subscriber isenabled to use the service for payment via his mobile station 1 andhence has access to the payment server 7 or not. This information isalso contained in the HLR, as the information in the VLR is a copy ofthe information in the HLR.

In the VLR/HLR 5 there may be only a flag indicating that the paymentserver 7 is accessible by the subscriber's terminal MS 1. Theconfirmation of the transaction and the transaction information as suchwill be forwarded via a configured routing element (e.g. the MSC), byfor example a secured TCP/IP connection via an external server and/orregister (not shown) to the payment server 7. The external server may bephysically part of the gateway GW 6, or of the payment server 7, but mayalso be provided separately therefrom. The external server/register isthus located between the payment server and the network element MSC ofthe network operator which serves the vending machine 2. The externalregister contains the information about the subscriber's/customers bankconnection (bank institute, bank account), so that the communicationnetwork operator within its network element has no information about thesubscriber's bank connection, thereby supporting anonymity of andsecurity for the subscriber.

Alternatively, the network address of the payment server 7 (e.g. an IPaddress, Internet Protocol address) is saved in the HLR, which addressis copied to a new VLR in case of a roaming subscriber.

In FIG. 1B) the connections between network elements transportingconfidential data such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers,transaction data, user's digital signature etc. should preferably besecure connections. The connection from the MSC 4 via the gateway GW 6to the payment server 7 could be a SSL secured connection (Secure SocketLayer), while the connections from the payment server 7 to the creditcard agency server 8, bank server 9, billing server 10 could be based onVPN (Virtual Private Network) or encrypted/ciphered TCP/IP connections(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). The certificateauthority functionality can be integrated in the server of the creditcard agency 8 or the bank 9 or alternatively a stand-alone server ofcertificate agency is in connection to server of the credit card agency8 and or the bank 9. Then the connection between credit card company orbank server 8,9 and the certificate agency server could be based on VPN(Virtual Private Network) or encrypted/ciphered TCP/IP connections(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). The gateway GW 6 maybe a WAP gateway but also another gateway similarly as in FIG. 1A.

The key to interpret or encrypt digital content can be stored in one offollowing network elements: vending machine or certificate agencyserver.

If the key is located in the certificate agency server it is transferredfrom there when user signature and the buying transaction confirmationis validated by the certificate agency. Alternatively the key may belocated in the digital content vending machine from where it istransferred to MS and stored for later use either in MS or in networkregister(s).

When the digital content is bought by the mobile terminal user the keyof the digital rights protecting the digital content can be stored inthe mobile terminal or alternatively in the user information registersHLR and VLR in the network.

FIG. 2 a and 2 b show a signaling diagram of the signaling between someof the terminals and network elements shown in FIG. 1A. For betterunderstanding of the description of FIG. 2 a and 2 b), it is firstlyreferred to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is showing an example of mapping transaction information topayment modes. As mentioned before, transaction information may comprisea transaction type information and/or transaction cost information. Forexample, a transaction type may be “buy” or “service”. Nevertheless,within such a type, sub-types may be defined. For example, “buy food” or“buy gasoline” could be defined as sub-types of transaction type “buy”.

Now, assuming that FIG. 3 shows a case for a specific user or a usergroup defined by a specific user group profile, it could be assumed forexplanatory purposes that info 1 and info 2 represent different prices,with the price indicated by info 2 being higher than the one indicatedby info 1. Then, info 1 and info 2, respectively represent a 1^(st) and2^(nd) margin (or threshold). If an actual price of a performedtransaction is below the first margin (info 1), a first criterion ismatched and a payment mode is set to mode 1 as shown in the example ofFIG. 3. If an actual price of a performed transaction is above the firstmargin (info 1) but below the second margin (info 2), a second criterionis matched and a payment mode is set to mode 2 (mode 2 includes earlierindicated mode 2 a) and mode 2 b)) as shown in the example of FIG. 3.Still further, if an actual price of a performed transaction is abovethe second margin (info 2), a third criterion is matched and a paymentmode is set to mode 3 as shown in the example of FIG. 3.

The payment modes may differ from each other in the destination to whichsaid information on said transaction is transferred to. Namely, whethera billing server 10 of the network, a bank server 9 of a bank instituteof the subscriber or a credit card agency's server 8 is connected to thepayment server 7 in order to actually charge the subscriber for thepurchased goods or services. Also, the modes may differ in when thecharges are billed. E.g. whether a price for a transaction is billedrather immediately and individually for a concerned transaction, orwhether plural prices of individual transactions arecollected/accumulated before being billed to the subscriber, e.g. atregular intervals or when a predetermined amount has been reached. Also,more than two margins may be defined, however, FIG. 3 shows only twomargins to keep the explanation simple.

Still further, assuming a case in which FIG. 3 shows a case for aspecific user or a user group defined by a specific user group profile,it could be assumed for explanatory purposes that info 1 and info 2represent different transaction types and a price limit for such atransaction type. For example, info 1 could represent a type of “buy”combined with a price limit, while info 2 could represent a transactiontype of “service” combined with a price limit. The price limits fordifferent types of transactions may be set independently from eachother. In such a case, for each type of transaction, two payment modesare defined dependent on whether the price is above or below therespective price limit. Of course, plural price limits per transactiontype may be defined, so that more than two payment modes are selectableper transaction type.

The above described mapping information for mapping transactioninformation to payment modes is kept at the payment server shown in FIG.1A.

Now, as shown in FIG. 2 a, the subscriber requests by use of histerminal MS 1 for a certain transaction, step S1. The request isforwarded by the intermediate of the communication network, the vendormachine, and the network to the payment server 7, as already explainedin connection with FIG. 1A. The payment server 7 returns transactioninformation received from the vendor machine such as price and or kindof good/service to be purchased to the mobile station MS 1, step S2.This serves for providing the user with a possibility to confirm therequested transaction. If the user wishes to confirm the requestedtransaction and to perform the requested transaction, he confirms thisin step S3 to the payment server 7.

The payment server 7 in step S4 judges whether the transactioninformation fulfills a first predetermined criterion or not (e.g.whether the actual transaction information (e.g. price) is below themargin info 1 as indicated in FIG. 3.

If yes in step S4, the payment server 7 in step S5 selects payment mode1 in accordance with the judgement (conforming to the example shown inFIG. 3), so that the transaction information is transferred for billingpurposes to the network operators billing server 10.

If the transaction information does not fulfill the first criterion instep S4, the payment server 7 in step S6 judges whether the transactioninformation fulfills a second predetermined criterion or not (e.g.whether the actual transaction information (e.g. price) is above themargin info 1 and below the margin info 2 as indicated in FIG. 3.

If yes in step S6, the payment server 7 in step S8 selects payment mode2 in accordance with the judgement (conforming to the example shown inFIG. 3), so that the transaction information is transferred for billingpurposes to the bank server 8 of a bank where the subscriber maintains achargeable bank account. The payment of accumulated transactions in mode2 is transferred to the “bank server” when a periodic time is reached(day/week/month) in step S9 and condition of step S9 is fulfilled (=mode2 a). That mode 2 a fulfilled condition in step S9 is the condition thatis marked as one valid condition named as 2^(nd) criterion in FIG. 3.Alternatively in FIG. 2A in mode 2 the payment of accumulatedtransactions is transferred to the “bank server” if not a periodic timebut a predefined amount is reached and condition in step S10 isfulfilled, which is the same as marked one valid condition named in the2^(nd) criterion in FIG. 3.

If not in step S6, the payment server 7 in step S7 selects payment mode3 in accordance with the judgement (conforming to the example shown inFIG. 3), so that the transaction information is transferred for billingpurposes to the bank server 8 of a bank where the subscriber maintains achargeable bank account.

The difference between mode 2 and mode 3 resides in, as shown in FIG. 3,that in mode 3 the sum to be charged is charged immediately for theindividual transaction, while in mode 2 the sum is charged in non-realtime, i.e. monthly or weekly or daily together with charges havingaccrued due to other transactions performed by the subscriber oraccumulated charges of the subscriber's performed transactions reachespredefined limit (the second limit that is marked as 2^(nd) margin valuein FIG. 3 and is different to the 1^(st) margin limit of FIG. 3.

If the bought product is DRM protected digital content the protectionkey (or set of keys) can be stored in one of following network elements:vending machine or certificate agency. If the DRM protection key(s) islocated in certificate agency, which is integrated in the bank serverthe MS will receive the DRM protection key(s) in the receipt that issent from the bank server. Alternatively the key may be located in thedigital content vending machine from where it is transferred to MS whenvending machine gets confirmation of the accepted payment to be made.The receipt of the payment can be sent to MS or it can be stored in thepayment server. Depending on where the receipt of the payment is storedit is sent from either MS or payment server to vending machine if thereceipt of the payment does not include the DRM key protectioninformation. As a result the vending machine sends back the DRMprotection key information (and if the receiving party is the paymentserver the protection key is sent further to the mobile terminal, MS.Since the DRM protected digital content is only one alternative productto be bought the DRM protection key transferring is optional feature andis presented with a dotted line in the FIG. 2A.

In FIG. 2B is shown signaling of network architecture in which thecertificate agency functionality is located in a separate server otherthan the bank or credit card company server. First the subscriberrequests by use of his terminal MS 1 for a certain transaction, step Si.The request is forwarded by the intermediate of the communicationnetwork, the vendor machine, and the network to the payment server 7, asalready explained in connection with FIG. 1A. The payment server 7returns transaction information received from the vendor machine such asprice and or kind of good/service to be purchased to the mobile stationMS 1, step S2. This serves for providing the user with a possibility toconfirm the requested transaction. If the user wishes to confirm therequested transaction and to perform the requested transaction, heconfirms this in step S3 to the payment server 7.

The payment server 7 in step S4 judges whether the transactioninformation fulfills a 3^(rd) or 2^(nd) predetermined criterion or not(e.g. whether the actual transaction information (e.g. price) is aboveor equal the margin info 1 as indicated in FIG. 3.

If yes in step S4 or in step S6 or in step S8 selects payment mode 2 or3 in accordance with the judgment (conforming to the example shown inFIG. 3), so that the transaction information is transferred for billingpurposes finally to bank or credit card server where the subscribermaintains a chargeable bank or credit card account. For simplicity wedescribe only the bank account and server although instead of sendingthe bill to the bank it can be sent to a credit card company and theirserver (or computer network of theirs). The payment of accumulatedtransactions in mode 2 is transferred to the “bank server” when aperiodic time is reached (day/week/month) and the condition that ismarked as one valid condition named as 2^(nd) criterion in FIG. 3 ismet. Alternatively in FIG. 2B in mode 2 the payment of accumulatedtransactions is transferred to the “bank server” if not a periodic timebut a predefined amount is reached and condition, which stands for themarked one of valid conditions named as 2^(nd) criterion in FIG. 3.

Before the transaction information is transferred for billing purposesto the bank server of a bank where the subscriber maintains a chargeablebank account a certificate agency is requested to validate user'ssignature. The payment server sends from step S7 or S8 a request ofuser's signature validity at step S9 (or S12). The certificate agency,CA server answers user validation back to payment server in step S10 (orS14).

If the bought product is DRM protected digital content the protectionkey (or set of keys) can be stored in one of following network elements:vending machine or certificate agency. If the DRM protection key(s) islocated in certificate agency, which is integrated in the bank serverthe MS will receive the DRM protection key(s) in the receipt that issent from the bank server. Alternatively the key may be located in thedigital content vending machine from where it is transferred to MS whenvending machine gets confirmation of the accepted payment to be made.The receipt of the payment can be sent to MS or it can be stored in thepayment server. Depending on where the receipt of the payment is storedit is sent from either MS or payment server a request to have DRMprotection key (in step S19) is sent to vending machine when the receiptof the payment did not include the DRM key protection information. As aresult to the made request the vending machine sends back the DRMprotection key information in step S20 (and if the receiving party isthe payment server the protection key is sent further to the mobileterminal, MS. Since the DRM protected digital content is only onealternative product to be bought the DRM protection key transferring isoptional feature and is presented with a dotted line in the FIG. 2B.

It is to be noted that various modifications to the example describedabove are conceivable. Namely, more than two margins withcorrespondingly increased number of plural criteria to be judged areconceivable. Dependent on whether a respective criterion is met by theactual transaction information, different payment modes can be selected.Although in FIG. 3 each criterion is mapped to a different payment mode,it is conceivable that more than one criterion is mapped to one paymentmode. For example, four criteria could be mapped to only two or threepayment modes.

Also, the communication network used is not limited to a GSM network, aUMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standard) network or any othercommunication network is also applicable for the purpose of the presentinvention.

Accordingly, as has been described herein above, the present inventionproposes a payment method for paying by a mobile terminal 1 through acommunication network 3, 4, 5,6, the method comprising the steps of:providing S2 information on a transaction effected with a third party 2using the mobile terminal 1, judging S4, S6, whether said informationfulfills a predetermined criterion of a plurality of predeterminedcriteria, and selecting S5, S7, S8, dependent on the result of saidjudging step, a corresponding one out of a plurality of payment modes 8,9, 10; Mode 1, Mode 2, Mode 3 for said transaction.

Although the present invention has been described herein above withreference to its preferred embodiments, it should be understood thatnumerous modifications might be made thereto without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention. It is intended that all suchmodifications fall within the scope of the appended claims.

1. A payment method for paying by a mobile terminal through acommunication network the method comprising the steps of: providinginformation on a transaction effected with a third party (2) using themobile terminal, judging whether said information fulfills apredetermined criterion of a plurality of predetermined criteria, andselecting dependent on the result of said judging step, a correspondingone out of a plurality of payment modes for said transaction.
 2. Amethod according to claim 1, wherein said information on saidtransaction is cost information representing the costs accrued for saidtransaction.
 3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein saidinformation on said transaction is indicative of a type of transaction.4. A method according to claim 1, wherein according to the selectedpayment mode, said information on said transaction is transferred to acorresponding destination.
 5. A method according to claim 4, wherein ifsaid selected payment mode is selected for transactions involvingpayments that are less than a specific amount, the payment amount isadded to a communication network operators bill for a user of the mobileterminal, and the information on said transaction is transferred to abilling server.
 6. A method according to claim 4, wherein for a specificselected payment mode, said information on said transaction isaccumulated for plural individual transactions before being transferredto said corresponding destination.
 7. A method according to claim 4,wherein if said selected payment mode is selected for transactionsinvolving payments that are equal or more than a first specific amountthe said transaction is individually transferred to said correspondingdestination.
 8. A method according to claim 4, wherein for a specificselected payment mode, said information on said transaction isindividually transferred to said corresponding destination.
 9. A methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said predetermined criterion is userspecific, and said method further comprises a step of providinginformation about said predetermined criterion for a user.
 10. A methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the transaction comprises the steps ofchoosing, by the mobile terminal, a vending machine, disclosing, by thevending machine, a telephone number which a customer, by means of themobile terminal, may dial for buying a good/service offered by saidvending machine, and dialing said disclosed telephone number.
 11. Anetwork element adapted to carry out the method as defined in claim 1.12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the transaction comprisesfurther the steps of, as a result of the information transferred to acorresponding destination, a destination network element requestsvalidity from a certificate agency server.
 13. A method according toclaim 1, wherein the transaction comprises further the steps of, as aresult of the information transferred to a corresponding destination, adestination network element sends a validity request from a certificateagency server that is in connection to a corresponding network elementvia a network connection.
 14. A method according to claim 1, wherein thetransaction comprises further the steps of, as a result of theinformation transferred to a corresponding destination a control blockof the corresponding destination makes the payment transaction andreturns a receipt.
 15. A method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein thea transaction comprises further the steps of, as a result of theinformation transferred to a corresponding destination a control blockof the corresponding destination makes the payment transaction and priorto the payment the user's signature is validated.
 16. A method accordingto claims 12 to 14, wherein the transaction comprises further the stepsof, after the payment transaction, a certificate validation or serverreturns a protection key of a digital product.
 17. A method according toclaims 12 to 14, wherein the transaction comprises further the steps of,after the payment transaction, a certificate validation and receipt ofpayment is given without a protection key of a digital product, and theprotection key is requested from a product provider's vending machine.18. A method according to claim 17, wherein the transaction comprisesfurther the steps of, after the protection key is requested from theproduct provider's vending machines, it is returned to mobile terminal.19. A method according to claim 1, wherein the transaction concerns adigital product comprising one of text, image, video and audio.
 20. Amethod according to claim 1, wherein a receipt given as a result of madepayment is stored in a payment server.
 21. A method according to claim1, wherein a receipt given as a result of made payment is stored in themobile terminal.
 22. A payment system which comprises: a communicationnetwork, wireless terminals available to communicate with thecommunication network, selling entities, said communication networkincluding identification information associated with service informationof said wireless terminals, said service information describing apayment service identifier, one of said wireless terminals buying incommunication with the selling entities something to be paid, whereinbuying information from said one wireless terminal is transferred to thewireless network which selects a payment server depending on saidservice information of the one wireless terminal, wherein payment istransferred with information of the buyer to the payment server havingan external register including buyer information, the payment servercharging the account of a user by his/her micropayment account.
 23. Apayment system as claimed in claim 22, wherein said service informationincludes an identifier of a bank.
 24. A payment system as claimed inclaim 22, wherein said service information includes a network address(IP address) of a payment server saved on a register of registeredterminals.
 25. A payment system as claimed in claim 22, wherein a thenetwork address of the payment server is copied to other relevantregisters of the network.
 26. A payment system as claimed in claim 22,wherein there are one or more payment servers connected to thecommunication network.
 27. A payment system as claimed in claim 22,wherein one payment server is a global server which has information toconnect a wireless terminal user with his/her banking service providerand wherein said global server has means for linking an identifier ofthe user with the payment service identifier.
 28. A payment system asclaimed in claim 22, wherein a banking service provider has its ownserver for enabling the micropayment services to users separate from abank account, and wherein transaction information is transferred andhandled in the banking server.
 29. A payment system as claimed in claim22, wherein in said payment server the information of the buyer includesa mobile terminal identifier, service information and PKI informationand micropayment account information.
 30. A payment system as claimed inclaim 22, wherein said service information includes information of aservice provider in which the buyer has a bank account.
 31. A paymentsystem as claimed in claim 22, wherein said server includes informationof parameters describing limits of usage of the account, chargingpractice, and bonus practice.
 32. A payment system as claimed in claim22, wherein the charging includes direct debiting, debiting based on theacceptance of the buyer, and debiting based on the predescribed message.33. A payment system as claimed in claim 22, wherein the transactioninformation includes two parts from which one is a connection basedcharge and the other is a product payment relating charge.
 34. A paymentsystem as claimed in claim 22, wherein one of the selling entities is avending machine.